I don't let the fact that I am grammatically challenged stop me from.....

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Google Alert - "Michael Ring" Serious update

This is weird someone we posted my entire blog, with their own ads. Should I be humbled or afraid?Wow, a lot just happened. I just got back from the opening ceremonies for the 2015 New York City Marathon. It was nice that I got to march in it. Local clubs from New York marched up to the finish line followed by representatives from all the nations that are running Sunday's race. This picture is on Facebook, and I'd like to include the full quote of my friend Kristin who posted it. "Fantastic to see you walking the parade, Michael!! So very, very happy for you. A true show of what strength, determination, tenacity, and ultimate optimism can do. You fought all odds and look where you are tonight! Your family must be so proud of you, as I and your PPTC family, your friends, and running mates are!" It's a great thing she said, especially in light of the interview that I posted below. I also think it's great that you can tell how freaked out I have inside at the moment that picture was taken. I was only yards from the New York City Marathon finish line and honestly I was ready to fall apart. But then just as operate group got to the finish line, Peter Ciaccia the race director of the New York City Marathon gave me a hug and told me that he was happy to see that I was better. I told him I'd be running next year, give me a pat on the back and I felt better.

Last week I was interviewed over the phone by a nice reporter from the Huffington Post. I wasn't really sure what was about in a couple days later I saw this piece. I was quoted as saying

Michael Ring, 19-time NYCM runner: My first [marathon was in 1979] and I threw up all over the Queensboro Bridge, then crawled all the way over the bridge, just hoping there was some sort of aid station at the bottom … It was a long day.

and

Ring: [My first marathon], when I got to Central Park, I made a decision. I decided that I needed to keep running as long as I was conscious. I was just so exhausted that I said, "No more water stops, no more nothing, just keep running."

The two quotes together didn't really make sense and I didn't think I needed to share them. The first marathon was in 1980 and I did not finish after I threw up all over Queens. The first one I finished was in 1993 and I did make that decision to run as long as I was conscious once I got to Central Park. But I just got another Google news alert about myself where I was seriously quoted from that same phone interview. Below is what they said I said

It’s possible that Baig has seen fellow Achilles-devotee Michael Ring at some of the local meetings. Ring’s situation is in many ways the polar opposite of Baig’s. Ring had run 29 marathons and was training for his 30th when, in May 2014, he found himself “tripping over stuff” as if his “brain wasn’t talking to [his] feet.” He went to the emergency room, expecting a long day of waiting-room tedium -- instead, he got a four-month hospitalization, diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome and temporarily paralyzed.

The man who could run 26.2 miles seemingly at the snap of his fingers suddenly, inexplicably, couldn’t take a step.

“That expression ‘relearning to walk’ -- you don’t know what that means until you don’t know how to walk,” Ring told HuffPost. “I was looking at people like, ‘How do you do that? How do you take a step without your knee locking behind you?’”

It took him 12 months after he was released from the hospital to be able to walk three miles. But now, with the help of his medical team, running friends and the newly founded Brooklyn chapter of Achilles -- and with those literal and symbolic first steps behind him -- he has settled upon his next goal. So what if he still has to use a wheelchair on occasion -- in 2016, he says, he will compete in the New York City Marathon.

“[Achillles] has been really good to me,” Ring said. “... I know in a year I’ll be able to handle 26 [miles] … [My support groups and medical teams] are getting me stronger and they’re helping me figure out how to do things with the [means] that I have.”

“I’m an atheist,” he continued. “And I think running did for me what church does for a lot of people. I meet with people who care about each other, we have goals -- when I was in the hospital, 95 percent of the people who visited me were running friends.”

If running is Ring's religion, then he’s joined in the pews not just by other Achilles athletes, but also by those throng of other charities that have similarly dedicated time, effort and money to helping those with disabilities experience the marathon’s energy and electricity.

Michael-You used to kick ass before and now you're just kicking ass in a different way. You're not being famous or inspiring but aren't you just being you, albeit in a different way, which is a good thing?

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I have probabally found a thoundsand dollars worth of metrocards, this list starts July 27, 2008

9-14-17 Since the spring I have found about $25 worth of cards. One of them had over $13 on it and I found it on the path along the belt Parkway while running a race there. It was a challenge to bend down and pick it up but I knew it would have value because it was so far from the subway

5-21-16 Found the card at the starting line of the Brooklyn Half. It will work till May 31

12-28-15: found the card on the floor in Sears that will work till January 10

Haven't been in the subway since May and I now pay cash to go on espresso ride

4-20-14: $35

4-11-14: $75

3-25-14: $50

3-2-14: a $35 card and a card that will work till the owner tell the MTA to stop deducting the money from his bank account. Both on the the course of a 5K

3-1-14: $20

2-4-14 $25

1-9-14: $50

12-20-13 $20 and a card that will work till 12-25

12-8-13: $25

12-5-13 $40

10-14-13: $50. (I think they have been cleaning the stations better since the fare went up in the Spring.)

9-16-13: $75 TODAY! mostly on a few recently expired cards.

9-1-13 $20, but I have had to spend $40.

7-17-13" $25 and a card with 6 days left on it.

7-7-13: $50

6-7-63: $15

5-22-13 $65 (one card with $49.05)

5-18-13 $20 (I have just been in the subway less lately)

4-1-13: $50

3-22-13: $30

3-17-13:$25

3-15-13: $30

3-8-13: $25

3-6-13: $35 (and the fact that new card cost an extra $ did not seem to have any effect)

3-1-13: $20 and a card that will last till 3-8

2-22-13: $25

1-27-13: $35 and a card that will work till 2-5 (it only lasted a day)

1-23-13: $40.00

1-14-13: $20

1-3-13: $13.13

12-31-12: $7.00 (It has been a great month)

12-28-12: $30 today!

12-25-12: $21.50 today!

12-24-12: $7.50

12-21-12: $59.00 ($45.25 on one card)

12-19-12: $25 and still riding free.

12-15-12 $50

12-8-12 a card that will work till 12-25

11-28-12: $15

11-26-12: $10.00

11-11-12: $25

10-17-12: $30

10-16-12: $40

10-9-12: $30

10-2-12: $7.50 and an unlimited that will last till 10-20

10-1-12: $25

9-15-12: $25

9-5-12: $25

8-27-12: $35

8-24-12: $40 and a $38 NYC Parking Card.

8-15-12: $25

7-10-12: $20

7-8-12: $50 (and still using unlimiteds)

6-19-12: $25 and I have been using a unlimited monthly since the beginning of June.

5-29-12: $50

5-11-12: $40

5-4-12: $30, and I have been riding free for the past 3 weeks on a monthly that I found

4-20-12: $25

4-5-12: $17 (just today)

4-2-12: $50

3-13-12: $35

2-29-12: $25

2-10-12 $60, been a good few weeks.

2-6-12: A Transit Check card that may work till 5-31 (worked till 2-20)

1-23-12: $40.00 another great day.

1-21-12: $6.00

1-18-12: $40 (today and yesterday!!)

1-16-12: $145. (I lost my cards, found them in the communal laundry room in my apartment building 2 days later.

1-11-12 $50... Yea!

1-2-12 $35 (27.45 on 1 card yesterday)

12-20-11: $45 (been lucky)

12-12-11: $15.00

12-2-11: $10.50

12-1-11: $40.00 ($37.45 on one recently expired card. People bring it to the booth, you can get a new one.)

11-28-11: $20.00

11-17-11: $25 ($14.75 on one card)

11-6-11: $16.00 on 2 cards at about the 10 mile mark of the NYC Marathon.

11-1-11: $15.00

10-23-11: $10.00

10-14-11: $50 it has been a good few weeks and I have been riding for free.

9-25-11: $7 and a card that will last till 10-15 at the 7 mile mark of the NYC Marathon Tune Up.

9-20-11: A card that will last till 9-25!

9-19-11 $15 and bought $40, but I found a student card one of my kids can use.

9-5-11: This week I found about $5.00 but I had to BUY $40.00.

I Been finding less because I have been on the subway less often. Not because cards with value are any more scarce. However, now that I gotta start paying for my kids I can see paying for a fare in my future.